Subway tile effect in plaster- how to dress up a past inconsistent repair effect?

[Cajun_In_NC]

Hello all. I am trying to decide how to approach handling the result of a past plaster repair. A long, narrow bathroom, the long walls's lower section mostly retain a subway tile effect in the plaster. The upper walls were finished in a "general" plaster effect. A repair, arranged by a past owner, leaves one of the four walls with an inconsistent and ugly plaster effect in this late '20s bathroom. I am considering a faux painting effect on this wall until we decide if we renovate / restore the entire bathroom. Below are examples of the "good" walls. The first image orientation after attaching shows the tile effect vertical instead of horizontal.

lower walls

P1040509.JPG (481.32 KiB) Viewed 1471 times

upper walls

P1040512.JPG (1.07 MiB) Viewed 1471 times

The wall in question is the interior portion of an exterior wall (stucco). We are happy with the bathroom's usability. Until, and if, we decide to renovate the bathroom as a whole, I would like to put some lipstick on this one "pig" of a wall. I would address the couple of cracks in the wall as well.

lower repaired wall

P1040541.JPG (880.01 KiB) Viewed 1466 times

upper repaired wall on right

P1040544.JPG (1.06 MiB) Viewed 1466 times

Two places in the bathroom, the plasterer / contractor glued what I think are sections of waterproof material. Perhaps something used to line showers? One of these is on the ugly repaired wall, I figured I would apply the faux painting to that section as well as the plaster. The other section is where the bathroom fixtures are installed. I figured this latter was done after plumbing work for the bath / shower. Not sure how to approach this in the long run.

There are a couple of repairs on the remaining walls that I have considered restoration of the subway tile effect. Overall, those two walls look very nice with the subway tile effect in the plaster. I would consult an expert for sure on these spots. I have included descriptions for these two photos in my gallery.

waterproofing material on repaired wall

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waterproofing material in bath (faucet fixtures)

P1040534.JPG (847.59 KiB) Viewed 1466 times

Any suggestions for techniques in painting or covering and painting are appreciated. Also, any thoughts or experience from anyone with this nice subway tile effect or with plaster experience?

[Gothichome]

TCajun, I don’t have a good fix for you for the long term, but maybe an aged plaster faux technique might get it looking better. You can separate the original subway tile effect from the upper section with a chair rail and repaint the tile in bright gloss white.

[phil]

making it flat would be easy but the effect you want might be harder. there are effects you can get trough troweling etc but often they just look sloppy and repairs are hard to match. How about using that wallpaper with a relief pattern that can be paint-able maybe with epoxy or something so it can take the sauna effect of a bath? you can get radius corner beads , they could add interest if used appropriately perhaps?
Wainscot might also add interest. you might need to do somethign like make cuts in the crack and then fil it with epoxy or plaster to try to stabilize the crack If yoiu skim coat over it it will hide it but it'll come back. a quick and dirty method to flatten it is to use 1/4 drywall and lots of screws, but you can also just skimcoat what you have if it's stable. Of course drywall can only take so much water but most modern bathrooms are drywall not plaster. they have the drywall with blue paper , supposed to be tougher but it's really just drywall.
I did a concrete form where I put tapered sticks in the form to make like ribs then stripped the form when it was still a bit green and took a hammer to it to roughen it up to create an interesting effect. I'm not sure anything like that will turn out to be efficient there though. I dont think Id go for faux tile since it's going to be more work trying to duplicate the effect . real tile might look nicer. if youd rather they were smooth and flat then thats easy just skimcoat it until its flat. Id use mud, some may say plaster. If you do skimcoat maybe you can use a power sander to roughen it up to get a good bond. If you were to screw on 1/4" drywall and use a 1/2" round corner profile corner bead . that wouldnt' be hard wehre there is no issue with the wall thickness. near windows and obstacles you'd have to think how adding more thickness might complicate things.

[Willa]

http://manhattan-nest.com/2019/06/18/my-upstairs-bathroom-refresh-the-big-reveal/

Here's what one blogger did with a fairly small budget ($ 1000) for a basic bathroom improvement. He also had bad walls and psuedo tiles. He is pretty skilled, with a good sense of design. His post says that this is sort of a stopgap improvement vs the complete overhaul that he wants to give the bathroom in the future. In the interim it is so much better than what he had been living with. He used paintable anaglypta wallpaper (the heavily embossed paper). I think his result looks really good. Maybe there will be some ideas there for you ?

If you go backwards through his posts you can get a better idea of some the ugly he was dealing with as well as the undoing before he could redo.

[Cajun_In_NC]

TCajun, I don’t have a good fix for you for the long term, but maybe an aged plaster faux technique might get it looking better. You can separate the original subway tile effect from the upper section with a chair rail and repaint the tile in bright gloss white.

Thank you for the comment, I did fail to include a photo that shows the "chair rail" between the normal effect plaster on the upper half of the walls and the subway effect on the lower half of the walls. I am thinking of at least painting the wall above the chair railing a new color with a complement color on the subway tile plaster below the chair railing. Thank you again!

[Cajun_In_NC]

http://manhattan-nest.com/2019/06/18/my-upstairs-bathroom-refresh-the-big-reveal/

Here's what one blogger did with a fairly small budget ($ 1000) for a basic bathroom improvement. He also had bad walls and psuedo tiles. He is pretty skilled, with a good sense of design. His post says that this is sort of a stopgap improvement vs the complete overhaul that he wants to give the bathroom in the future. In the interim it is so much better than what he had been living with. He used paintable anaglypta wallpaper (the heavily embossed paper). I think his result looks really good. Maybe there will be some ideas there for you ?

If you go backwards through his posts you can get a better idea of some the ugly he was dealing with as well as the undoing before he could redo.

I appreciate the discussion reference and link. I will definitely look that over. I am thinking of using a heavy embossed paper for the ceiling that looks like the old metal patterned square tiles that are in many old commercial buildings in our area. Paint over with something suitable for bathroom humidity.

[Cajun_In_NC]

making it flat would be easy but the effect you want might be harder. there are effects you can get trough troweling etc but often they just look sloppy and repairs are hard to match. How about using that wallpaper with a relief pattern that can be paint-able maybe with epoxy or something so it can take the sauna effect of a bath? you can get radius corner beads , they could add interest if used appropriately perhaps?
Wainscot might also add interest. you might need to do somethign like make cuts in the crack and then fil it with epoxy or plaster to try to stabilize the crack If yoiu skim coat over it it will hide it but it'll come back. a quick and dirty method to flatten it is to use 1/4 drywall and lots of screws, but you can also just skimcoat what you have if it's stable. Of course drywall can only take so much water but most modern bathrooms are drywall not plaster. they have the drywall with blue paper , supposed to be tougher but it's really just drywall.
I did a concrete form where I put tapered sticks in the form to make like ribs then stripped the form when it was still a bit green and took a hammer to it to roughen it up to create an interesting effect. I'm not sure anything like that will turn out to be efficient there though. I dont think Id go for faux tile since it's going to be more work trying to duplicate the effect . real tile might look nicer. if youd rather they were smooth and flat then thats easy just skimcoat it until its flat. Id use mud, some may say plaster. If you do skimcoat maybe you can use a power sander to roughen it up to get a good bond. If you were to screw on 1/4" drywall and use a 1/2" round corner profile corner bead . that wouldnt' be hard wehre there is no issue with the wall thickness. near windows and obstacles you'd have to think how adding more thickness might complicate things.

Thank you for bringing up multiple factors to consider, I appreciate this very much. It gives me options to research and select a feasible idea or two to work up. Your ideas and comments were very helpful and I appreciate the time you spent reading and replying.

[phil]

you mentioned tin tiles for ceilings are available I think if you look in the directory someone put links some are plastic too.
You can paint them and then put them up if you like. some like to do several colors and a fancy paintjob and then apply them. im not sure how I'd feel about tin tiles in a bathroom bu tits an idea.

I need to do my bath too it's pretty ugly. I have a vintage tub I want to use. im unsure if I want wainscott because of water and its hard to clean but it might look nice. same with wood floor. do I restore the floor or cover it? I have floor tile and its ugly tile. some are designing showers with open doors and protecting the floor with membranes then stone or tile one thing Id like is to be able to not worry about water and to have it so the floor drains. in a bath its nice to be able to use water and to not have too many nicks and crannies to clean... those old tubs were not easy to get around and behind and I don't have a huge room to make it easier. I'm hoping I can find a vintage toilet and sink that would all go together.

my theory is it doesn't matter how big a room is or even if it's a closet. the amount of work is the same. Its not the size of the room its the number of corners you have to deal with I only have one bathroom so planning how to attempt it all has got me. some previous owner put a toilet sink and vanity in a closet. it was a silly reno. I pulled it out but lef the toilet for when I do my reno but going with no shower sounds gross. maybe I need to put a bath downstairs, even a temporary installation. the sink I can work around.

[AngeloM]

In case you haven’t gotten started or gotten through the project I would like to suggest a couple things

Remove the plastic. It will be messy and the adhesive will be difficult to scrape but coverings like this are almost exclusively done to avoid labor. Secure the plaster is necessary, cut cracks out, scrape high spots, lightly scuff any surface that has a sheen to it, mesh tape cracks and apply skim coat of durabond 90 or equivalent. As it sets up, scrape lines and high spots then apply easy sand 90 or equivalent. Continue until sandable

If you want to do the subway tile effect use a tape measure and level and do all horizontal lines with a punch, scribe or drywall knife then do measure and use the level for the vertical lines just remember carve every other plane!